You are in an archived section of the Child Family Community Australia (CFCA) site. Publications in this section were produced by the former Communities and Families Clearinghouse Australia which is now part of CFCA. Please visit Child Family and Community Australia website for a full list of our publications and other resources.
Overview of Promising practices
What is a "Promising" practice? | What is a Promising Practice Profile?
What is a "Promising" practice?
A practice is more than a task, action or program element (e.g. running a breakfast program at the school). A practice includes the task but also explains the key ingredients or critical elements that made that action work (e.g. building small groups of parents to run the breakfast program, enabling parents to talk to each other as part of the activity, organising children to help prepare the food which built their skills).
There are usually many sets of practices within a project. For example, one project may include:
- practices to do with consulting with community members;
- practices related to delivering a set of project activities (e.g., running a parenting program or recruiting and training volunteers); and
- practices to do with checking the project activities are successful.
A practice has clearly defined parameters that can be assessed and compared against similar practices. For the purposes of the Stronger Families and Communities Strategy, a practice is considered promising if it can demonstrate effectiveness. Promising practices may have been developed from the existing evidence base of what works and may also be innovative, replicable, sustainable and contribute to the existing evidence base.
It is important to note that promising practices are not limited to front-line service delivery. Promising practices can include organisational and programmatic aspects that contribute to effective service delivery and project outcomes. The organisational dimension could include human resource management practices (e.g., staff training/professional development), financial management, the process used to apply for funding/grant acquisition and/or its management, inter-agency collaboration and partnership strategies as well as promotion and marketing strategies. The programmatic dimension may include the program design, needs assessment strategies, project management, information or reporting systems, community organising and engagement methodologies (e.g., the successful engagement of the most disadvantaged families, CALD families or work with Indigenous families and communities), volunteer recruitment, training and support strategies and project evaluation methods.
The core requirement for a practice to be considered promising is demonstrated effectiveness. Evidence provided to support claims of positive outcomes achieved may take various forms including:
- external evaluation;
- an internal evaluation;
- letters of support from key stakeholders (such as the local school principal, local business leaders, etc.); and
- letters of commendation (for instance from other people who work with the participants who have noticed a change, etc).
A variety of qualitative and quantitative methodologies may be used in the practice evaluations to obtain the evidence needed. These methods may include:
- focus groups;
- interviews;
- stakeholder questionnaires;
- independent peer review;
- linkage to research literature;
- review of administrative data;
- internal evaluation; and
- reflections on practice and ongoing improvement.
Promising practices may also be developed from the existing evidence base of what works, and may be able to demonstrate innovation, replicability, sustainability, and contribute to the existing evidence base.
A Promising Practice Profile Form Guide has been developed to accompany the Promising Practice Profile Proposal Form. It provides helpful tips and information needed to respond to each section of the proposal form.
What is a Promising Practice Profile?
A Promising Practice Profile (Promising Practice Profile) is a summary document that explains a particular practice or set of practices (ways of working) that have helped to achieve a project’s objectives. It comprises a description of the “key ingredients” of a program/project, what was done, or what particular ways of working were important. It also includes a summary of the existing evidence base about what is known about the effectiveness or relevance of this practice, information about how a particular practice or set of practices within a program worked on the ground (how it worked and what made it work), and the evidence linking the practice to outcomes (evidence that it worked). These profiles then become useful summary tools and guides to others who may be working to address similar issues.